UH to make push into health-care arena

By Todd Ackerman

4:49 pm, Sunday, August 2, 2015

Positioning itself for a greater role in health-care reform, University of Houston regents Wednesday approved a plan to consolidate its health programs into one big center.

The plan, which must be approved by the Texas Legislature, would bring together such UH programs as social work, pharmacy, optometry, speech language pathology and clinical psychology in an attempt to make the Houston university a key player in the changing health-care environment.

"We want to become more relevant to the community, and this is one key way to do that," said UH President Renu Khator. "What are the coming gaps in health-care services and what can UH do to fill them? Answering those questions will broaden our impact."

The plan approved by regents would designate UH's health programs as a health science center, even though the Houston university lacks the medical school that typically serves as the linchpin of such enterprises. UH leaders studied starting a medical school six years ago, but the idea never advanced beyond a consultant's proposal.

Khator, who made developing UH's health initiatives one of her priorities in her inaugural speech 4½ years ago, said the proposed center involves no short-term plans for a medical school. But she said she would "never say never" to the possibility of a medical school in the future.

If the Legislature approves the center proposal, UH hopes to launch it in 2014, officials said. The center would be headed by a vice president for health, hired after a national search, who will lead a strategic planning process into how to develop and expand UH's programs.

UH would also construct a new building for the center. The building would be the university's third devoted to health programs.

UH currently enrolls 11,000 students in 97 health-related programs and receives more than $40 million a year in health sciences research. It has partnerships with numerous institutions in the Texas Medical Center.